Question 1

When her son dies, Kisa Gotami goes from house to house? What does she ask for? Does she get it? Why not?

Accepted Answer

After the death of her only son, Kisa Gotami was overcome with grief. She carried the dead body of her son in her arms and went from door to door asking for medicine to cure her child, but nobody could provide any medicine. For there is no such medicine available which can bring a dead person back to life.

The Sermon at Benares — Web Content Notes | Bright Tutorials

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  English | Prose: The Sermon at BenaresWeb Content
  
    The Sermon at Benares &ndash; Comprehensive Web Content
    Study GuideThis is an expanded study resource for The Sermon at Benares by Betty Renshaw (First Flight). Use this alongside the chapter notes for complete board exam preparation.

Detailed Summary
    Siddhartha Gautama, sheltered as a prince, encounters old age, sickness, and death. He renounces his royal life, achieves enlightenment as the Buddha, and delivers his first sermon at Benares. The central episode: grief-stricken Kisa Gotami asks Buddha to revive her dead son. Buddha sends her to find mustard seeds from a house untouched by death. Every house has known death. Kisa Gotami understands: death is universal and inescapable.

Theme Analysis
    Universality of Death
    No household is untouched by death. This universality places individual grief in a larger context of shared human experience.
    Acceptance
    Buddha teaches that grief from attachment is natural but must be transcended through understanding impermanence.
    Teaching Through Experience
    Buddha gives Kisa Gotami a task that lets her discover truth herself — more powerful than direct instruction.
    Compassion
    Buddha’s approach respects Kisa Gotami’s pain while guiding her to wisdom.

Character Study
    BuddhaCompassionate, wise, patient, uses indirect teaching
    Kisa GotamiGrief-stricken, desperate, ultimately wise through experience

Literary Devices & Techniques
    
      Parable: Kisa Gotami’s quest is a teaching parable
      Irony: The impossible task IS the lesson
      Repetition: Going house to house, same answer
      Symbolism: Mustard seeds (common) = death (equally common)

Board Exam Questions with Model Answers
    Q: What task did Buddha give Kisa Gotami? (2 marks)
    Model Answer: Buddha asked her to bring mustard seeds from a house where no one had ever died. Kisa Gotami went from house to house but every family had experienced death. She realised death is universal, which was exactly what Buddha intended her to learn.
    Q: How did Kisa Gotami understand the truth about life and death? (5 marks)
    Model Answer: By visiting every house and finding that death had touched each one, Kisa Gotami understood that her grief was not unique. Death is the common fate of all living beings. This experiential learning — discovering through her own journey rather than being told — made the truth deeply personal and transformative. She returned to Buddha not with mustard seeds but with understanding.

Key Vocabulary
    Refer to the chapter notes and teacher aid for a complete vocabulary list. Focus on understanding words in context rather than memorising definitions in isolation.

Revision Checklist
    
      Can you summarise the text in 80 words?
      Can you name all major characters and their traits?
      Can you identify at least 3 literary devices with examples?
      Can you write a 5-mark answer on the main theme?
      Have you practised all textbook exercise questions?

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Question 2

Kisa Gotami again goes from house to house after she speaks with the Buddha. What does she ask for? Does she get it? Why not?

Accepted Answer

Gautama Buddha asks Kisa to bring a handful of mustard seeds from a house where death had never knocked at the door. Kisa Gotami went from door to door, but couldn’t find a single house where death had not taken a beloved away. She could not get it as death is ineritable and anyone who is born is bound to die one day.More Resources for CBSE Class 10NCERT SolutionsNCERT Solutions for Class 10 ScienceNCERT Solutions for Class 10 MathsNCERT Solutions for Class 10 SocialNCERT Solutions for Class 10 EnglishNCERT Solutions for Class 10 HindiNCERT Solutions for Class 10 SanskritNCERT Solutions for Class 10 Foundation of ITRD Sharma Class 10 Solutions